Brown Says California Ready To Help In Immigration Crisis

Gov. Jerry Brown addresses the media about his upcoming trade trip to Mexico.

Katie Orr, Capital Public Radio

California Governor Jerry Brown is taking a trade trip to Mexico next week. And the governor weighed in today on what Mexico and California can do to help with the current immigration crisis.

Brown says it’s primarily up to federal government to deal with the influx of immigrant children crossing into the United State from Central America. But he says strong relationships between places like Mexico and California can help ease the situation. Brown says the surge of immigrants is more than a political problem.

“It’s really a humanitarian question. And I’m very happy to see that a number of conservatives have taken a more compassionate view," he says. "And I think if we do that we’ll be able to work it out. And certainly California’s willing to do its part.”

Brown is leading a large trade delegation on a four day trip to Mexico beginning on Sunday. He says a positive relationship with the country is fundamental to California’s well-being.

Brown also made his first public comments on his nomination of Stanford Law Professor Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar to the California Supreme Court.

Cuéllar has degrees from Harvard, Yale and Stanford. He's also a Mexican immigrant. And Brown says he was not “unaware” of California’s growing diversity while making his selection.

“When 50 percent of the kids kindergarten through 12th grade are of Latin decent, it’s important that they see, in all the positions of power, people who they identify with" he says.

Brown says he’s spoken with Cuéllar several times and read the first and last chapters of Cuéllar’s political science PhD dissertation, which Brown says impressed him.